Three-dimensional weaving machines for weaving a five-axis three-dimensional woven fabric consisting of warps, wefts, biased yarns, and vertical yarns have been proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open (Tokkai Hei) No. 4-11043 and Japanese Patent Application Laid Open (Tokkai Hei) No. 5-106140. The three-dimensional weaving machines described in these publications guide warps and biased yarns to a cloth fell in the weaving machine, form the warps into a plurality of warp-layers while forming the biased yarns into a set of two biased yarn-layers, and locate the biased yarn-layers between the warp-layers. The biased yarns in one of the two layers are tilted at a specified angle relative to the warps, while the biased yarns in the other layer are tilted at the same angle in the opposite direction. Furthermore, wefts are inserted between the warp-layers and between the biased yarn-layers, and vertical yarns are inserted between the warps and between the biased yarns in the respective layers in the thickness direction of the layers. Therefore, five-axis three-dimensional woven fabrics are woven, and by the vertical yarns, the warps, wefts, and biased yarns are connected and structured.
In a three-dimensional weaving machine for weaving five-axis three-dimensional woven fabrics consisting of warps X, wefts Y, biased yarns B1, B2, and vertical yarns Z, a single continuous yarn is inserted through a large number of yarn guiding members, so it is very difficult to automate the insertion of the biased yarns that are inserted so as to be tilted like diagonal braces at a specified angle relative to the longitudinal and transverse directions in which fibrous yarns are arranged. Therefore, there has been a need for the development of a reasonable mechanism for realizing this automation.
Biased yarn feeding mechanisms for a three-dimensional weaving machine for weaving five-axis three-dimensional woven fabrics such as those described in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 4-11043 and Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 5-106140 are already known. The biased yarn feeding mechanisms described in these publications feed biased yarns by circularly moving them along an annular track. In such a mechanism for circularly moving the biased yarns along the annular track, however, the feeding side of the biased yarns must also be moved circularly to prevent the yarns from becoming intertwined, thereby preventing long biased yarns from being continuously woven.
Therefore, the present invention provides a three-dimensional weaving machine, such as that described above, that includes a compact biased yarn feeding apparatus that enables long yarns to be continuously woven, in particular, a three-dimensional weaving machine that allows biased yarn guide blocks used to feed biased yarns to be reduced in size, which prevents the movement of the guide blocks from being complicated in order to enable biased yarns to be fed accurately and reliably, and that uses a compact apparatus to weave wide (e.g., approximately 3 m) three-dimensional woven fabrics reliably.